Google to Invest in One of YouTube's Most Popular Channels Machinima

YouTube would become a content creator itself, albeit not directly, yet

Google is slowly changing its role from provider to content creator with YouTube. It hasn't started creating its own shows, just yet, but it has been funding creators for a while now. And now, there is talk of Google investing in Machinima, the company behind one of YouTube's most popular channels, with the same name.

There's nothing official yet, but Machinima is said to be raising funds, some $30 million valuing the company at around $190 million. Google is not the only investor, but it is investing itself rather than via its venture capital arm, Google Ventures.

Investing via Ventures was one of the possibilities, particularly to try to distance Google and by extension YouTube from Machinima, a channel vying for views and ad revenue with all the other video producers on the site. Yet, Google decided against this in the end and will be investing itself.